Tag Archives: SMPTE

DCPC – Digital Cinema Package Creator

Functions:

– SMPTE / MXF Interop DCPs
– 2D + 3D DCPs
– 2k BW/Scope, 4k BW/Scope and HD resolutions
– 6 Channel Sound, 24bit/48kHz
– Film and still image creation
– MPEG2 DCPs for E-Cinema Server
– DCP “re”wraping of MXF files
– Source image formats: bmp, tif, dpx, MPEG2 ES (MPEG2 DCP)
– Source Sound format: PCM 24bit
– Framerates: 24, 25

Utility archive: This archive contains the required Imagemagick, and a helpful
Program to e.g. avi video files to split into individual images in order to create aDCP.

3D channel separation test DCP: The DCP contains two test images for you to consider the quality of the channel separation. The left image contains the test images, the right image is black.

DProVe | Digital Projector Verifier

Because it was originally marketed with the post-production-centric Digital Leader, which has the price of $2,500, it perhaps isn’t as well established in the industry. But for $100 it is a steal and should be used often and by everyone until everyone is an expert.

OK; not quite $100 you say. True. It is $100 per copy plus a $150 media charge. So, $250, or $350 for 3, etc. Except, the license allows that for a single site all copies over 5 are not charged for. In other words, there is a 5 copy per site charge, plus the media fee – total $650, then that’s it for a multiplex, even if it has 10 or 15 screens.

SMPTE Digital Leader Demonstration – YouTube

What is needed next is a checklist of questions and answers for the projectionist to run through, making sure that the presentation from the server and projector is as fine as can be.

This is where the DCinemaCompliance – Post Installation Checklist can come in handy, as well as the DCinemaTraining instruction set on how to make the checklist relevant to each of your employees.

SMPTE Releases Two New Digital-Cinema Products To Standardize Workflows, Enhance Theater-Going Experience

DPROVE_Order_Form.pdf

DProVe Flyer | SMPTE

DProVe | Digital Projector Verifier

Because it was originally marketed with the post-production-centric Digital Leader, which has the price of $2,500, it perhaps isn’t as well established in the industry. But for $100 it is a steal and should be used often and by everyone until everyone is an expert.

OK; not quite $100 you say. True. It is $100 per copy plus a $150 media charge. So, $250, or $350 for 3, etc. Except, the license allows that for a single site all copies over 5 are not charged for. In other words, there is a 5 copy per site charge, plus the media fee – total $650, then that’s it for a multiplex, even if it has 10 or 15 screens.

SMPTE Digital Leader Demonstration – YouTube

What is needed next is a checklist of questions and answers for the projectionist to run through, making sure that the presentation from the server and projector is as fine as can be.

This is where the DCinemaCompliance – Post Installation Checklist can come in handy, as well as the DCinemaTraining instruction set on how to make the checklist relevant to each of your employees.

SMPTE Releases Two New Digital-Cinema Products To Standardize Workflows, Enhance Theater-Going Experience

DPROVE_Order_Form.pdf

DProVe Flyer | SMPTE

DCI Talks NIST

There are many FIPS standards, since they are the codification for the use of all non-military computers allowed by the US government, which spans many fields. The security standards referenced by SMPTE and the DCI group are the 140 series which were passed in May of 2001 known as 140-2. There are four levels defined in this series beginning with Level 1, ascending with higher components of physical security to Level 4. Level 2 defines physical tamper evidence and role-based authentication, Level 3 adds tamper resistance, identity authentication and different physical and logical separations between different interfaces as data goes between them, complicated with security going back and forth. Level 4 adds more physical security, and focuses on attacks coming from the environment such as Side Channel and Cache attacks. 

Currently, Digital Cinema uses Level 3 of FIPS-2. But FIPS has begun the final steps of their process to supersede FIPS-2 with FIPS-3, expected to be finalized for implementation in 2011 or 2012. DCI specifications (and SMPTE and ISO (the International Standards Organization which incorporated the DCinema SMPTE standards note for note) require that DCI Compliant equipment move with the current FIPS standard. What came as a surprise though was an “Annex A” that was changed in advance of FIPS-3 which changed 3 salient points of the way that keys are utilized in the process.

There has been a DCI statement recently that allows a “grandfathering” of equipment that has passed compliance under the “old” rules. (Compliance Test Plan Change Policy Statement) But manufacturers are still preparing equipment for compliance that will not make it under the old rules. As of now there are several manufacturers of projectors who have passed through the DCI Compliance process, but there are no servers (though some have FIPS compliance already.)  

Michael Karagosian of MKPE Consulting points out: 

A surprise was introduced in January of this year when NIST changed Annex A of FIPS 140-2, the NIST specification for which DCI currently requires compliance.  The transition period for this revision is taking place right now, in this calendar year.  NIST says that after December 31 of 2010, it will no longer accept test results from products that comply with the older version of FIPS 140-2.  

There are some notable exceptions to this deadline that benefit the digital cinema community.  But one very significant issue remains regarding dual use of the asymmetrical key-pair in the media block, for which the December 31 deadline is still intact.  The primary use of the media block key-pair is to encrypt and decrypt the KDM.  But the DCI spec calls for other uses of this key-pair, as well.  The dilemma presented by FIPS 140-2 is discussed in my report in the September issue of the SMPTE Journal, which is online at http://mkpe.com/report/.

To summarize the problem:  SMPTE 430-5, one of the standards that establishes the DCI-compliant Security Log, requires that the media block certificate (public key) be used to digitally sign the media block security logs.  This behavior is mandated by the DCI specification, in addition to other DCI-specified uses. The older version of FIPS 140-2 allows this multi use of the media block key-pair through its normative reference to FIPS 186-2.  However, the newer FIPS 186-3 forbids the multi-use case.  FIPS 140-2 Annex A was updated in January 2010 to now require conformance with FIPS 186-3.  Further, a NIST discussion paper on their website requires compliance to FIPS 186-3 after December 31, 2010.

Below is the relevant text taken from SMPTE 430-5, FIPS 186-3, and the NIST discussion paper:

* From SMPTE 430-5 Security Log Event Class and Constraints, Section 6.2:
“Each Signature shall be signed with the Digital Cinema Certificate of the Security Device that generates the Log Record or sequence of Log Records.”
(A copy of SMPTE 430-5 can be purchased from the SMPTE web site at http://store.smpte.org/product-p/smpte%200430-5-2008.htm.)  Note that the other uses mandated in the DCI spec of the media block’s Digital Cinema Certificate is to create the KDM and to establish a TLS session between media block and projector.

* From FIPS 186-3, page 11 (http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips180-3/fips180-3_final.pdf):
“However, a key pair used for digital signature generation and verification as specified in this Standard shall not be used for any other purpose.”

* From NIST DISCUSSION PAPER: The Transitioning of Cryptographic Algorithms and Key Sizes (http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/key_mgmt/documents/Transitioning_CryptoAlgos_070209.pdf):
“New implementations designed to conform to FIPS 186-2 may be tested by the labs until December 31, 2010, after which only implementations claiming conformance to FIPS 186-3 will be tested for validation.”

If no action is taken by DCI, the result will be that the DCI specification will be in conflict with itself after December 31.  The DCI spec will call for compliance to FIPS 140-2, which will no longer allow the media block key-pair applications that are also required by the DCI specification, including the KDM as it is defined today.

That was written to the InterSociety Digital Cinema Forum on 3 October 2010.

Against that background, DCI issues a document on 11 November 2010:
DCI Informational Bulletin NIST Standards Evolution & FIPS 140-2 to FIPS 140-3 Transition 

Another analysis of FIPS-3: 
Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-3 

Sayonara CD-ROM: SMPTE

Subject: NEW! Online Subscriptions to SMPTE Standards

As of November 2010, SMPTE is pleased to provide customers with new online access to its Standards documents.  Through a password-protected online service, users will have online access to all relevant documents plus the added benefit of access to new documents as soon as they are published.

Subscriptions will be available to Individuals and Institutions, Member or non-Member, with discounted rates for Individual and Sustaining SMPTE members (and the Individual Member rate is reduced from the CD subscription).  Full details at http://www.smpte.org/standards/subscriptions/ .

For new or renewing subscribers the new products are now offered in the SMPTE Store http://store.smpte.org/category-s/58.htm.  SMPTE will discontinue distribution of Standards and other documents on CD-ROM.  All existing subscribers who would normally have received the October 2010 CD-ROM as part of their subscription will receive access to the online service until the anniversary date of their subscription.  An individual notice will be sent to these subscribers within the next two weeks.

We are excited to be taking this next step in making SMPTE documents available to the industry in a simple and timely manner; please feel free to contact me with any questions or suggestions.

Peter Symes
Director, Standards and Engineering
Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers

www.smpte.org

SMPTE Numbers Get New View

Renumbering of SMPTE Standards

(What happened to the “M”?)

Please be aware of the following changes to document numbering:

  • All SMPTE Engineering Documents will be numbered as a two-letter prefix and a number; e.g. ST xxxx:year, RP xxxx:year, EG xxxx:year; multipart document numbers will include a part number; e.g. ST xxxx-pp:year.
  • All online listings and filenames will use leading zeroes as necessary to ensure appropriate ordering, and no spaces—e.g. ST0125:1995 (listing) and st0125-1995 (filename).
  • The “M” designator was originally introduced to signify metric dimensions.  It will not be used for new publications, or in listings or filenames. Units of the International System of Units (SI) are the preferred units of measurement in all SMPTE Engineering Documents.
  • Document titles and text will not use leading zeros, and will use a space after the designator—e.g. ST 125-1995.
  • Document titles and text will be updated only when a document is revised.
  • Documents and references with the same root number and year are functionally identical; e.g. st0125-1995, ST0125-1995, ST 125:1995, and SMPTE 125M-1995 all refer to the same document.
  • References in newly-published documents will use the new style (e.g.  ST 125:1995) even though the referenced document may carry the old-style number (e.g. SMPTE 125M-1995).

SMPTE DCP’s are coming…

Jamie at CineTechGeek points out several of the changes coming with (and things to watch out for with) the imminent transition from the InterOp DCPs (Digital Cinema Package) to the fully compliant SMPTE DCP.

It is important to note that although he says that he has made sure that his clients are ready for the change in April 2011, not everyone needs to, or should, make the transition right away, when the transition begins. The full transition is expected to take a year and there are many reasons that changing is not optimum right away.

That doesn’t take away from the many good points that are made in this video: 
CineTechGeek » SMPTE DCP’s are coming

Call for Papers–SMPTE 2010 Annual Tech Conference

Early conference registration opens on 6 August, 2010. To register for the event and receive up to a 25% member discount, please visit
http://www.smpte.org/events/smpte_2010_annual_tech_conf/.
You can also visit the same site to reserve your hotel room at a discounted rate today.

We plan to get you updates shortly with regard to the speaker and presentation lineups for this event – and look forward to seeing you in California this Fall.

Call for Papers–SMPTE 2010 Annual Tech Conference

SMPTE logoSMPTE is pleased to once again be holding its Annual Conference at the 
Renaissance Hollywood Hotel

Fall Conference – Register Early & Save Up To 25%

I also want to encourage you to save the date for the SMPTE Annual Conference & Expo, which takes place Oct. 26-28 in Hollywood – and to take advantage our early-registration discounts.

Early conference registration opens on 6 August, 2010. To register for the event and receive up to a 25% member discount, please visit
http://www.smpte.org/events/smpte_2010_annual_tech_conf/.
You can also visit the same site to reserve your hotel room at a discounted rate today.

We plan to get you updates shortly with regard to the speaker and presentation lineups for this event – and look forward to seeing you in California this Fall.

Question 0: What is the exact definition of DCinema

[The question is being answered by David Reisner of D-Cinema Consulting. David is a board member of several organizations such as the ASC and ISDCF, co-author of several books on many fields of the cinema process and specializes in design and implementation of digital cinema infrastructure projects.]


For nearly 100 years, motion pictures have been delivered to theaters on 35mm film and have been shown with film projectors.

Digital Cinema, officially called D-Cinema in the technical community, delivers movies to theaters as digital files – most often on harddisk, sometimes via satellite, probably in future also by network/internet.  The movies are then shown using digital cinema servers (special purpose computer systems) and theater-grade digital projectors.  D-Cinema also includes/requires a number of digital and physical security mechanisms, to keep content (movies) safe.  The key documents are the DCI “Specification” (actually a requirements document) and a number of SMPTE standards.

D-Cinema requires support for 2048 x 1080 or 4096 x 2160 images and 14 foot-lambert brightness (similar to film standard brightness, although theaters sometimes use lower light levels for cost).  Movies are distributed in 12-bit X’Y’Z’ color – much more color detail than HDTV’s Rec. 709.  X’Y’Z’ can represent all the colors that a human can see, but the real limitation is the projector (and, to be fair, the camera and post-production process).  All D-Cinema projectors show at least a minimum color gamut which is a significantly wider range of color than Rec. 709 – similar to the range supported by film.

For some markets or purposes (e.g. pre-show, advertising, maybe small markets), some people use things informally called electronic cinema, e-cinema.  There is no formal standard for e-cinema although there is some informal agreement in certain areas.  E-cinema will have lower resolution, narrower color, less brightness, and little or no security.

Major studio content will only be distributed to D-Cinema systems that meet the SMPTE and DCI specifications and requirements, and have passed the DCI Compliance Test.

David Reisner
D-Cinema Consulting
image quality, color, workflow, hybrid imaging
[email protected]
www.d-cinema.us